I discovered Dr Paul Gachet, the protagonist of Mesmerised,
quite a few years ago when reading The Homeopathic Revolution by
Dana Ullman. I recently managed to track down Dana and he has very kindly
agreed to answer some of my questions for this blog.
Can you say a little bit about yourself and your
relationship to
homeopathy?
My father was a physician who specialized in pediatric
allergy. He was professor emeritus at UCLA School of Medicine. His
treatment advocated the use of small doses of an allergen to improve
tolerance in an individual and to reduce the hypersensitive state of a
suffering patient. Administering small doses of a similar substance to
evoke cure is termed the law of similars. It is the basic
principle of homeopathic medicine and is an integral part of my gene
pool.
The Homeopathic Revolution is a fascinating book
that lists all the famous people throughout history who have used homeopathy,
and there were many. What inspired you to write it?
In January 2006, Coretta Scott King (the wife of the
legendary Martin Luther King) died in an alternative medicine hospital in
Mexico. According to her family, she went to this hospital due to her
special interest in homeopathic medicine. Upon hearing of Ms. King’s
appreciation for homeopathy, I was inspired to collate the names of cultural
heroes throughout the past 200 years who were advocates of homeopathy.
Through my research I discovered many more famous people had a connection with
homeopathy than I had previously imagined.
Can you
tell us any anecdotes about your research?
One day, an old
customer came into my store to look around. When I told him that I had
begun working on a book about famous people and homeopathy, he told me that
Charles Darwin was known to have benefited from this form of
medicine. I had heard this too, but I was skeptical, so I
went to the UC Berkeley library to read and review the large
numbers of letters to and from Darwin. Much to my surprise, Charles Darwin
had received homeopathic treatment from a Dr. James Manby Gully 10 years before
the completion of his seminal book, The Origin of Species.
Is the The
Homeopathic Revolution still available and where can people buy it in the
UK?
The Homeopathic Revolution
is available through all good homeopathic book sellers and leading online
bookstores such as Amazon.
